Reducing recurrent care proceedings: initial evidence from new interventions

The English family justice system faces a crisis of recurrence. As many as one in four birth mothers involved in public law care proceedings in English family courts are likely to reappear in a subsequent set of proceedings within seven years. These mothers are involved in up to one-third of total care applications, as they are – by definition – linked to more than one child . Few birth mothers experiencing the removal of a child to care are offered any follow-up support, despite often facing multiple challenges including poverty, addiction, domestic violence and mental health problems. Since 2011, however, a number of new services have been established to begin to address their unmet needs. This article summarises the findings of the first academic-led evaluation of two of these initiatives. Presenting evidence from a mixed-methods evaluative study, it concludes that the new services were able to foster relationships that ‘worked’ in reducing recurrent proceedings. None of the women engaging with the services went on to experience what could be described as a ‘rapid repeat pregnancy’ within the evaluation window. Just as significantly, a number of clients reported some improvement in their psychological functioning, and the practitioners involved reported positively on their experience of delivering and managing innovative services. The article closes with a discussion of the challenges of evaluating personalised, strengths-based interventions and the possibilities of evidencing empowerment in these cases

Wash testing of electronic yarn

Electronically active yarn (E-yarn) pioneered by the Advanced Textiles Research Group of Nottingham Trent University contains a fine conductive copper wire soldered onto a package die, micro-electro-mechanical systems device or flexible circuit. The die or circuit is then held within a protective polymer packaging (micro-pod) and the ensemble is inserted into a textile sheath, forming a flexible yarn with electronic functionality such as sensing or illumination. It is vital to be able to wash E-yarns, so that the textiles into which they are incorporated can be treated as normal consumer products. The wash durability of E-yarns is summarized in this publication. Wash tests followed a modified version of BS EN ISO 6330:2012 procedure 4N. It was observed that E-yarns containing only a fine multi-strand copper wire survived 25 cycles of machine washing and line drying; and between 5 and 15 cycles of machine washing followed by tumble-drying. Four out of five temperature sensing E-yarns (crafted with thermistors) and single pairs of LEDs within E-yarns functioned correctly after 25 cycles of machine washing and line drying. E-yarns that required larger micro-pods (i.e., 4 mm diameter or 9 mm length) were less resilient to washing. Only one out of five acoustic sensing E-yarns (4 mm diameter micro-pod) operated correctly after 20 cycles of washing with either line drying or tumble-drying. Creating an E-yarn with an embedded flexible circuit populated with components also required a relatively large micro-pod (diameter 0.93 mm, length 9.23 mm). Only one embedded circuit functioned after 25 cycles of washing and line drying. The tests showed that E-yarns are suitable for inclusion in textiles that require washing, with some limitations when larger micro-pods were used. Reduction in the circuit’s size and therefore the size of the micro-pod, may increase wash resilience

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase family member 14 (PARP14) is a novel effector of the JNK2-dependent pro-survival signal in multiple myeloma

Copyright @ 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Regulation of cell survival is a key part of the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma (MM). Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling has been implicated in MM pathogenesis, but its function is unclear. To elucidate the role of JNK in MM, we evaluated the specific functions of the two major JNK proteins, JNK1 and JNK2. We show here that JNK2 is constitutively activated in a panel of MM cell lines and primary tumors. Using loss-of-function studies, we demonstrate that JNK2 is required for the survival of myeloma cells and constitutively suppresses JNK1-mediated apoptosis by affecting expression of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP)14, a key regulator of B-cell survival. Strikingly, we found that PARP14 is highly expressed in myeloma plasma cells and associated with disease progression and poor survival. Overexpression of PARP14 completely rescued myeloma cells from apoptosis induced by JNK2 knockdown, indicating that PARP14 is critically involved in JNK2-dependent survival. Mechanistically, PARP14 was found to promote the survival of myeloma cells by binding and inhibiting JNK1. Moreover, inhibition of PARP14 enhances the sensitization of MM cells to anti-myeloma agents. Our findings reveal a novel regulatory pathway in myeloma cells through which JNK2 signals cell survival via PARP14, and identify PARP14 as a potential therapeutic target in myeloma.Kay Kendall Leukemia Fund, NIH, Cancer Research UK, Italian Association for Cancer Research and the Foundation for Liver Research

CD4+ T Cell-Derived IL-2 Signals during Early Priming Advances Primary CD8+ T Cell Responses

Stimulating naïve CD8+ T cells with specific antigens and costimulatory signals is insufficient to induce optimal clonal expansion and effector functions. In this study, we show that the activation and differentiation of CD8+ T cells require IL-2 provided by activated CD4+ T cells at the initial priming stage within 0–2.5 hours after stimulation. This critical IL-2 signal from CD4+ cells is mediated through the IL-2Rβγ of CD8+ cells, which is independent of IL-2Rα. The activation of IL-2 signaling advances the restriction point of the cell cycle, and thereby expedites the entry of antigen-stimulated CD8+ T-cell into the S phase. Besides promoting cell proliferation, IL-2 stimulation increases the amount of IFNγ and granzyme B produced by CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, IL-2 at priming enhances the ability of P14 effector cells generated by antigen activation to eradicate B16.gp33 tumors in vivo. Therefore, our studies demonstrate that a full CD8+ T-cell response is elicited by a critical temporal function of IL-2 released from CD4+ T cells, providing mechanistic insights into the regulation of CD8+ T cell activation and differentiation

Reclaiming Khadija's and Muhammad's marriage as an Islamic paradigm: toward a new history of the Muslim present

Using masculinities studies and a history of the present framework, Shadaab Rahemtulla and Sara Ababneh examine the marriage of Prophet Muhammad and Khadija (d. ca. 620) to question hegemonic narratives on "ideal" Muslim marriages. Muhammad's marriages—and, by extension, his masculinity—are often portrayed as expressions of power disparity, with Muhammad marrying multiple wives who were significantly younger in age. Due to the normative place of "prophetic practice" (sunna), these historical narratives have exerted a lasting impact on marital ethics and law. Yet the example of Khadija paints an alternative prophetic practice/masculinity: she was a powerful businesswoman fifteen years Muhammad's senior, and their monogamous marriage lasted twenty-five years. In this article, the authors ask, what can we, as Muslim feminists committed to gender egalitarian partnerships in our own contexts, learn from this premodern marriage, and how can we reclaim it as a model for contemporary Muslim masculinities

A computational and experimental re-examination of the reaction of the benzyloxyl radical with DMSO

A detailed density-functional theory study on the reaction of the benzyloxyl radical (BnOradical dot) with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was performed. The calculations reveal that BnOradical dot transfers a hydrogen atom to DMSO via a proton-coupled electron transfer reaction to form benzaldehyde, in agreement with the mechanism proposed in the literature for the reaction of ethoxyl radical with substituted pyridines. The radical formed from this reaction, DMSO-H, is predicted to be unstable owing to population of the Ssingle bondO antibonding π-orbital and decompose without barrier to form dimethyl sulfide and hydroxyl radical. The calculated exergonicity of the reaction is 16.6 kcal/mol. Our previous laser-flash photolysis (LFP) studies reported a kinetic deuterium isotope effect (KDIE), kH(DMSO)/kD(DMSO-d6), of 0.91 for this reaction, which is consistent with the foregoing mechanism, and with the value calculated in this work of 0.77. New LFP data reported herein for the reaction of BnOradical dot-d2 with DMSO give an experimental KDIE of 3.06, compared with a calculated value of 2.8. Taken collectively, our computational and experimental re-examination of the reaction between BnOradical dot and DMSO leads to the conclusion that BnOradical dot transfers a hydrogen atom to, rather than abstracts a hydrogen atom from, DMSO